Building Costs Still Rising

Building costs are expected to continue rising in the near future but at a slower rate, according to a recent survey.

The June quarter Westpac/AIQS BRIX survey indicated that Australia's Quantity Surveyors expect costs to continue rising at a rate of 6 per cent over the next 12 months. This is down from the average cost change of 7.6 per cent over the 12 months from June 2004 to June 2005 and well below the 8.9 per cent growth reported for the March 2004 to March 2005 year.

The surveyors expect building costs to continue rising at around 6 per cent over the next 12 months, slightly less than they forecast in the March survey. Western Australia is expecting the largest annual cost change of the major States at 8.6 per cent and NSW the lowest at around 4.5 per cent.

On a trade by trade basis, structural steel has again experienced the largest change in cost over the quarter at 3.0 per cent. However, the rate of growth has slowed from 4.3 per cent in the December quarter 2004 and 4.0 per cent in the March 2005 survey. Paving and plastering had the smallest cost changes over the quarter at 0.1 per cent.

Of the major states, NSW had the largest cost increase in any one trade with the cost of structural steel increasing by 7.2 per cent. NSW did however see the cost of plastering drop by 0.8 per cent and South Australia saw the cost of brickwork fall by 0.8 per cent

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